rpas airworthiness negotiation between military regulator and

Doug Davis Director of Airworthiness, Northrop Grumman Corporation

March 24, 2015

RPAS Airworthiness Negotiation between

Military Regulator and Manufacturer

ICAO RPAS Symposium Montreal, Quebec, Canada March 23-25 2015

Approved for Public Release: by NAVAIR, 3/18/15; Northrop Grumman 15-0505

NORTHROP GRUMMAN PRIVATE / PROPRIETARY LEVEL I

US Airworthiness Authorities National Airworthiness Council (NAC)

Consistency across NAS (National Airspace

System) Single Voice on US AW

Tri-Service Standards (516)

Minimize Duplication

Leverage Processes

Mutual Acceptance

Standard for National AW

Title 10

Public Aircraft

2 Approved for Public Release: by NAVAIR, 3/18/15; Northrop Grumman 15-0505

NAVAIR Flight Clearance Authority

US Code Title X, Ch 503, Sec 5013

AIR-00 is Design Control Activity Authority, Technical Authority, and Airworthiness Authority

SECNAVINST 5400.15C

OPNAVINST 3710.7U & 3510.15A

NAVAIRINST 13034.1D

Airworthiness Execution

DoDD 5030.61

Public Aircraft Operations


NAVAIR Airworthiness Authority as delegated to AIR-4.0P

• All USN/USMC owned or leased aircraft shall have an airworthiness approval in the form of a Flight clearance document promulgated / issued by COMNAVAIRSYSCOM

– Per OPNAVINST 3710.7U: NATOPS General and Flight Operating Instructions (dated 23 Nov 2009)

• Flight clearances issued as an IFC/Interim Flight Clearance

– NATOPS-Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization

– NATIP-Naval Aviation Technical Information Product

AIR-00 DELEGATES AIRWORTHINESS AUTHORITY TO

AIR-4.0P


The Flight Clearance Process UAS Specific

SAME AS GENERAL PROCESS WITH SOME SPECIFIC STEPS

AIR-4.0P FLIGHT CLEARANCE PROCESS


Roles and Responsibilities

• Flight Clearance Key Players Requirements defined in NAVAIRINST 13034.1D (which governs the USN airworthiness process) including minimum and recommended training and empowerment levels for:

– APMSE (Assistant Program Manager for Systems & Engineering)

– Competency Managers – TAEs (Technical Area Expert) – Facilitators – Test Team members



Original Equipment Manufacturer / Prime

• Supports the NAVAIR Airworthiness Process

• When applicable, submit accurate requests

• Provides data, details, project descriptions, and any necessary support to NAVAIR engineers, as required



NAVAIR 4.0P– Owns the process • Educates all participants of the process

• Provides tasking to TAEs to review flight clearances

• Ensures a proper and complete engineering review

• Releases clearances on behalf of AIR-00

• Keeps NAVAIR leadership informed of airworthiness issues


Airworthiness Terminology

Airworthiness • The property of an air system configuration to safely attain, sustain, and compete flight per approved usage limits. • USN airworthiness process is governed by NAVAIRINST 13034.1

EDRAP (Engineering/Data Requirements Agreement Plan) • USN term to document the NAVAIR / NGC agreement on what engineering data is required to establish the system

airworthiness.

DEL (Data Element List) = Appendix A of the EDRAP. • An Excel spreadsheet (recommended but not mandated) listing specific MIL-HDBK-516 criteria paragraphs identified to be

applicable to system. Spreadsheet also contains the allocation, artifacts (supporting data), status for each criteria. – MIL-HDBK-516 is the ‘DoD Handbook containing the airworthiness certification criteria.

• It is important that there be a means to trace 516 criteria/standards/MOCs and data artifacts to the DEL

EDEF (EDRAP Data Evaluation Form) • One page word document produced to support the review of each item identified within the DEL spreadsheet. The form

explicitly shows which artifact (supporting data) is used to substantiate each MIL-HDBK- 516 criteria and allows the NAVAIR TAE to:

– Approve (with or without limitations) – Disapprove

• Used on several Navy/NGC programs, but is not universally applied across USN UAS airworthiness

Artifacts (data elements) • Supporting data showing the compliance to the MIL-HDBK-516 criteria. • Each Artifact can be used by multiple RE/TAEs and can be mapped to one or many different MIL-HDBK- 516 criteria.


MIL-HDBK-516 to EDRAP

Tailored Airworthiness Criteria

Standards Methods of Compliance

Artifacts

Data Elements List

Planning Meeting

EDRAP

The building blocks of the airworthiness process


EDRAP (Engineering/Data Requirements Agreement Plan)

• EDRAP developed by program should capture meeting decisions – If design changes, EDRAP will need to be updated

• Ensure Contractors understand required analyses / data – Govt may need to help Contractors in performing analyses to

support the development of the flight clearance data pkg. – A flight clearance “Gotcha” is to submit analyses with errors and

those that do not follow MIL-STD guidance.

• IFC Request – Reference planning meeting & TAEs – Submit request with most/all of data

Pre-coordination = No surprises = Happy TAEs = Faster IFC!

1. Program description 2. IPT/EDT POCs 3. Platform POC 4. Schedule 5. Need dates for FC 6. Configuration for FC 7. Limitations/envelope for FC 8. Impact to NATOPS / NATIP 9. Flight clearance facilitator 10. IPT POC to submit request 11. Data element list 12. Technical concerns / risk 13. Signature block 14. Date of issue


General Airworthiness Process Flow

Change in Configuration,

Usage, or Environment Defined

EDRAP Agreement?

Focus Groups (RE, TAE, AW Team,

Class Desk)

Request Flight Clearance from AIR-

4.0P Artifact Submittals

Artifacts Approved?

Rework or Additional

Data?

Flight Clearance Granted

Yes

No

Yes No Risk, Hazard, or Limit

Accepted?

Yes

No

Yes

No


USN and Industry Certification Coordination Representative Example

System Design

Description

Or

IFC Definition

WRA Qualification HSCM

Proposed DEL

for IFC

NGC IFC Formal testing

(SW, SST, ST)

TRR

Design, build,

integration and

Preliminary Testing

NAVAIR agreed

upon DEL

Structural Qualification

DEL approval

NGC IFC Cert

System Configuration and Analysis

Initial DTR

submittal and

NAVAIR review

Final DTR

submittal for NGC Cert and

DEL support

Flight Test

Plans

FOLD/ GOLD/ COLD

Ground test

Flight Clearance

Test Readiness Review / Safety

Review Board

First Flight

ERB / TPA

Mission Plan

Validation

Requirement definition, Test Plan

review

USN Key= Joint Industry

DEL submittal

AW Qualification

Plan, EDRAP

Flight Readiness Review


Summary

• USN has decades of experience and has strong processes for very effective airworthiness certification

• Joint Industry and USN working as a integrated team ensures success

• Buy in from USN upfront is critical • EDRAP negotiation early is key

Key to Success = Strong working relationships between USN and Industry!


rpas airworthiness negotiation between military regulator and

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